Johnny Haynes

John Norman Haynes (17 October 1934 – 18 October 2005) was an English association footballer who played as an inside forward.

He made 56 appearances for his country including 22 as captain.

He was selected for three World Cup finals squads playing in the latter two of those.

Nicknamed "the Maestro", his attacking play was noted for two-footed passing ability, vision and deftness of touch.

Haynes is widely regarded as Fulham's greatest ever player, remaining loyal there for twenty years despite coming no nearer to a major trophy win than two FA Cup semi-final appearances.

He signed for Fulham as a 15-year-old amateur in 1950 when Fulham were in a three-season spell in the First Division.

He was loaned to then non-League Wimbledon.

He made his senior debut aged 18 in the 1952 Boxing Day visit of Southampton to Fulham, then in their first season back in the Second Division.

Haynes made his debut for England in October 1954, scoring a goal in a 2–0 victory over Northern Ireland in Belfast.

He was one of many signatories of a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing "the policy of apartheid" in international sport and defending "the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games".

Haynes played in his first of two FA Cup semi-finals in 1958.

Fulham were eliminated in a replay by the remnants of Manchester United's Busby Babes team that had been devastated by the Munich air disaster the month before.

United were the first top-division team Fulham played in that cup run.

Fulham were promoted to the top division after finishing runners-up behind Sheffield Wednesday in 1959.

In the 1959–60 season, Fulham finished 10th in the First Division, which was their highest league position until finishing 9th in the 2003–04 Premier League season.

He first captained England in 1960 and played for them in two World Cups.

Haynes first met Avril in the 1960s when she travelled down to London to buy stock for boutiques she ran in Edinburgh.

On moving to Edinburgh he ran a laundry business with Avril, played golf and watched local club, Heart of Midlothian.

Immediately following the abolition of the £20 maximum wage in 1961, he became the first player to be paid £100 a week.

He also had a spell on loan with Toronto City in 1961 and ended his playing days at Durban City, winning there the only trophy he won in his football career.

The son of a post office engineer, Haynes was born in Kentish Town and supported Arsenal as a boy.

Following the abolition of the £20 maximum wage in 1961, he became Britain's first footballer to earn £100 per week.

In 1961, during the English off-season, he played abroad in the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League with Toronto City.

He played in a second FA Cup semi-final in 1962, losing in a replay to Burnley.

In August 1962 on Blackpool promenade, the sports car in which he was returning late to his hotel was blown by a gust of wind into the path of another vehicle.

Haynes suffered broken bones in both feet and a badly injured knee.

He recounted that the police officer who attended the incident reassured him by saying "Don't worry son, you've only broken your legs".

He missed almost the entire season and, when he returned to the Fulham side, was not quite the same player.

Prior to the accident, he had captained England 22 times, and, being only 27, was expected to lead them in the 1966 FIFA World Cup, but he was never again selected for the national team.

Fulham were relegated in 1968.

Haynes then had a single spell in football management, taking charge of Fulham for eighteen days in November that year after the dismissal of Bobby Robson as player-manager, but Haynes never had any ambition to go into coaching.

That season, Fulham endured a second successive relegation.

His last appearance for Fulham's first team was on 17 January 1970 in a Third Division home match against Stockport County.

In total, he made 657 appearances for Fulham and scored 157 goals.

In 1970, Haynes announced his retirement, aged 35, and joined Durban City, playing one season and winning South Africa's 1970–71 National Football League.

This was his only winner's medal in senior football.

On retiring from playing in 1970 he was already an active bookmaker.

During the 1972–73 season, Haynes made three league appearances for non-League club Wealdstone.

He sold his chain of bookmakers to The Tote in 1976.

In 1985 he moved to Edinburgh, the city of his partner Avril.